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Co-Housing Bristol - Monthly Archives | ||||||||||||||||||
Inclusive Affordable
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2006 Archive
December Update.
(a)Membership Re-opened: After a thorough piece of work on our joining and membership processes we are pleased to once again invite applications for membership. Currently we are seeking 10 new household members interested in 100% leasehold properties. In December and January we are inviting 20 of our existing ‘enquirers’ interested in full purchase to two Introductory Meetings.
(b)Sites: Over the last three months we have researched into at least 10 separate sites. Our current preferred site is extremely promising, which Bristol City Council has just decided to release; we believe it to be very suitable for our planned community of 36 energy efficient homes.
(c)Partners: We have had a series of meetings with our key partners. BCC executive member Councillor John Keily has been very supportive. We have also had instructive meetings with Under the Sky, in order to further tighten up our financial model. Meetings with BCC officers, White Design (see below), CDA and UTS have all moved us on further.
(d)Design: We have had lots fun being fully engaged in three architecture workshops looking into the site layout and sustainable house design. We raised several very interesting solutions to living in a community. We are still engaging with this design process via a separate design website and eagerly waiting upon the consequent initial architectural sketches. We have subsequently carried out a very useful common spaces workshop, mostly concentrating on our group aspirations for the Common House.
(e)Community: We have been quite active socially too: in the summer we had a fab little holiday on the Gower and the CHIMPS subgroup has organised a number of children’s activities including at the Pot Stop ~miniature house building workshop and this weekend Gingerbread house building for budding architects, as well as few other adventures.
(f)Internal: We have also done some excellent work, led by the Concerns Subgroup in further enhancing our democratic processes to help ensure everyone is able to contribute equally.
(g)Publicity: Co-Housing Bristol featured in a full page article in South West leading Green/Alternative Spark Magazine.
July Update
Whilst Neighbourhood and Housing Services at BCC have stated officially that they will require the land that we were pursuing as our favoured site, they have brought to our attention another council owned site, which may prove suitable. We are currently waiting to ascertain whether this second site will be required for another RSL/ self-build scheme; this should become clearer by November. Following a very useful and cordial meeting with BCC Executive Members Anne White and John Kiely, and we are currently investigating both these and other sites.
Following a very thorough interview/selection process on 12th June, and with the very welcome advice and support of Richard Silverman of UndertheSky, CoHB have appointed White Designs (link to their website) as architects, initially for a series of design workshops and consequent sketches to be held in the autumn. White Design impressed us both with their comprehensive and integrative approach to achieving the highest possible environmental standards, and with a very clear, vital and engaging approach to democratic design processes.
Our membership has continued to grow, as Katherine has recently been welcomed, with four further prospective members are in the process of joining. It is likely that membership applications, which have remained closed for some months, will be re-opened in the near future.
We have worked hard on our internal strutures and policies, espicially in regards to membership and our internal contracts. We have adopting improved tools to aid extremely clear and dynamic consensus decision making; and tools for quick evaluation of meeting effectiveness and inclusion.
Lee Stickells (Senior Lecturer in Planning and Architecture, UWE) has been able to send us copies of the best of the masterplans his Masters students have completed, which have proved very informative and stimulating for many members of the group. We hope to schedule talk from Lee and Nigel Griffiths (on the subject of project management) in September.
UndertheSky, and Richard Silverman Ian Cawley in particular, have continued to offer us invaluable support, advising us on strategy and financial appraisal of the scheme.
April Update
We have had a number of communications with BCC officers and members and are currently awaiting a full formal response from the Director of Neighbourhood and Housing Services at BCC, and are hopeful that the response will be positive, and that this will lead to land acquisition negotiations.
Three architectural practices have been invited to submit tenders for capacity building design workshops, aiming toward the democratic development of sketches and a planning brief (presentations/ interviews will be held in the week commencing 12th June).
In support of this, we have held a successful environmental policy workshop, both formulating a statement of interim environmental policy, and attempting to comprehend issues in environmentally sustainable building standards; specifically the new 2006 version of BRE Ecohomes, and the implications of aiming for an ‘excellent’ rating.
To fund the architects’ workshops, we have collected a first round of loans from members. Our membership has continued to grow. We’ve recently welcomed two new households into the group, Tom and Pauline, and five further prospective members are in the process of joining.
However, if and when these members have joined, we will have 17 households in the group, approaching 2/3 capacity on our currently favoured site. To allow us to finalise approaches to tenure mix and development finance, we have temporary suspending new membership applications. Anyone wishing to join in the interim will join a waiting list.
Lee Stickells (Senior Lecturer in Planning and Architecture, UWE) has been able to show us the masterplans his Masters’ students have completed, and we hope to be able to share these more widely with the group in the near future.
UndertheSky, and Richard Silverman in particular, have continued to offer us invaluable support, specifically in developing approaches to architects and will shortly be aiding us in financial appraisal of the scheme. Nigel Griffiths of STSD has offered to talk to the group on the subject of project management in the very near future.
March 2006 No Report due to Easter holidays etc
Feb 2006
Following our (very successful) architecture workshop from which we have produced a draft outline brief to be sent to a shortlist of architects. We are particularly pleased with the process of preparing this document; it has been efficiently and effectively facilitated by the design sub group, and both informed and approved by the whole membership.
We had a very positive meeting with the Management Committee of the local Community Development Trust and we are looking forward to opportunities to work closely with the trust over issues of community consultation and further discussions regarding CLT
We have had several internal successes:
We have agreed our first set of membership secondary rules, looking
at eligibility criteria, rules & guidelines of membership and
the application process. We have also paid attention to the new
member pack and the joining process. This is very timely as we have
our open meeting on 12th March.
We have also as part of the mission statement process developed a strap line which again has come from a fully democratic, consensus based process.
Co-Housing Bristol
Inclusive &diam Sustainable &diam Affordable
Finally, as a result of both the architecture workshop and the secondary rules work we are planning a workshop on the 9th April to look at our environmental policy.
JAN 2006 REPORT
Co-Housing Bristol has made a good start to 2006, putting many of our plans into action and becoming much more organised.
We are preparing for a meeting with the Local Community Development Trust of our current prefered site. The purpose of this meeting is to introduce ourselves and to start exploring areas of mutual support and potential partnership opportunities.
We are continuing to work on our Secondary Rules, prioritising our application and induction processes
We have five prospective new members, at least one of whom has decided to formally join the group. Further, we are now planning our next Open Meeting for 12th March and have already received 15 new enquiries.
We have a new Mission Statement in draft form, which we hope to ratify at our next General Meeting.
Our Design Group ran a very successful 'outline brief workshop'
the collated findings of which will help produce a cohesive and
professional design brief for architects. The most encouraging
aspect of the workshop was the convergence of household members'
expectations regarding design and layout.